The Future of Mobile Marketing in Italy: A Delphi Study

Abstract

With the arrival of the smartphone it is possible to observe the rise of the mobile marketing, a peculiar marketing strategy that exploits these devices as an interlocutor between consumer and companies. Companies today are able to reach their customers at any time and to create tailor-made messages based on their individual needs and preferences. The aim of this article is to analyse the future of the mobile marketing in Italy through the Delphi method, which uses the opinion of a group of experts to recognize possible future scenarios and to evaluate their probability of occurrence. Starting with a brief introduction to the research method, we then describe the results and evaluation of the impact that the different scenarios obtained from the analysis could have on society and businesses by using the opinion of the Delphi-experts. In particular, among experts there is a consensus that Internet of Things will be the technology that more probably is going to grow more in the next three years, while a tourist experience continuously driven by the smartphone and gamification of traditional apps could be the ones which will have more impact on society.